


Here And Back Again

by AlwaysSpeaksHerMind



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Hugs, Or you can take this as friendship, Romantic Friendship, You can take this as romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 17:23:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11318130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysSpeaksHerMind/pseuds/AlwaysSpeaksHerMind
Summary: Caitlin returns to Central City after a year-long absence and finds Cisco, who has been missing her, at STAR Labs.(Prompt: Cisco/Caitlin, Hugs after being away for so long.)





	Here And Back Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isloremipsumafterall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isloremipsumafterall/gifts).



It’s late. STAR Labs is deserted. No one can understand why he spends so much time alone here, and every night, they all try to make him leave.

He doesn’t see the point.

There’s always work to be done, and besides, what else is he going to do? They all have their plans; he has his. Tinkering is, after all, a thing. If that’s what he wants to spend his evenings doing, why is that anyone else’s business? He isn’t hiding, or avoiding people, or wallowing in misery. He’s just choosing to miss her in the place she seems closest, and he’s not going to stop just because his friends think that he should get out more and “take his mind off everything.”

No, he’s not holing up. He’s just…waiting. He’ll wait if it takes ten years.

A door creaks open, shattering the deep silence, and he sighs. Rolling his eyes, he says the same thing he always says whenever this happens:  _I told you already, Barry. I’m staying until I finish this, okay?_

“Hey, Cisco.”

Ironically, he freezes.

That voice. He hasn’t heard it in over a year now, but he’d still know it anywhere. The prototype he’s been working on every spare hour for the past six months drops from his hands, falling to the floor with a clatter he barely registers.

“Caitlin?” he says—hoarsely, because he can hardly believe it’s her after all this time.

He’s afraid to turn around. Afraid that he won’t see her. Afraid that it’s just another vibe, or worse: a dream he’s fooled himself into thinking is real.

But he’s going to turn anyway. Of course he is.

Caitlin Snow has been his best friend for years. Empires of sentient gorillas could rise and fall, evil aliens could take over this earth and he would still count her among his family. A hypothetical scenario that doesn't make much sense, but the point is that he loves her. Nothing could ever change that. Not even the fact that the last time he saw her she was hanging on by a thread, vacillating between not caring and caring so much that she insisted on staying away—the doctor, wrestling with the killer. She’s the one who’s always been there; the one he can’t keep secrets from even if he bothered to try, because what difference would it make? She’ll just put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, look at him with those big, sad eyes of hers, and he’ll fold like a paper napkin and tell her everything.

Years of memories flood through his mind in a matter of seconds. His first day working at STAR Labs, how she made sure he felt welcome. Late nights spent trying to fix something that just refused to be fixed until they eventually consumed so much coffee that they started running around gibbering at one another, laughing their heads off the whole time. When he’d call her after a family dinner to rant about the awfulness, or she’d call him to vent about her mother. The time he let himself be talked into a blind date and the girl scared him so much that he called Caitlin in a panic from the bathroom, and without a second thought, she drove down in her pajamas and pretended to be the girlfriend he was cheating on (and then they got so terrified of the girl and her switchblade that they basically fled the restaurant). All the times she’d talked to him about her father. All the times she was there for him after Dante died. When he broke down and told her about his powers, and when she broke down and told him about hers. Seeing her lose control and fight to regain it made him ache inside in a way he’d never experienced, and watching her walk away was devastating.

Now that she’s just a chair-turn away, he isn’t sure he’s ready. The prospect of an icicle through the heart, delivered courtesy of a maniacally laughing Killer Frost doesn’t concern him. That’s not what this is. Ice powers aren’t the issue; he couldn’t care less whether she has powers or not. As far as he’s concerned, Caitlin Snow is the strongest person he’s ever met, and if anyone can defeat an urge to kill—an urge that everyone says is impossible to overcome—it’s her. What terrifies him is the idea of not seeing Caitlin.

But he has to know.

Swallowing hard, his throat so dry that it feels as though he’s strangling, he finally turns. Slowly.

And it is. It’s her.

Her skin is still pale, her hair still alabaster, but the smile is tentative and unmistakably _Caitlin_. And the hard glint that made his stomach sink whenever he looked into her eyes is gone, buried beneath the soft gloss of tears as she waits for him to say something.

“Caitlin,” he repeats, but this time it isn’t a question.

She nods, and that’s all it takes. In a second he’s on his feet and throwing his arms around her, his smile stretching from ear to ear even as tears cloud his eyes. They’re both laughing and crying, and holding onto one another so tightly that breathing is challenging to say the least, and neither one of them cares. It’s warm, and comforting, and so familiar that he can hardly stand to let go so they can gulp in some actual oxygen. But he’s glad he does, because the instant he pulls back, she’s smiling all over the place, and it’s worth it. It’s so worth it.

“Look,” she says. Holding up a palm, a white swirl rises, forming a tiny, perfect snowflake made entirely of ice. “No dampener. Just me. Me and my guaranteed invitation to every summer party ever.”

“Just you.” His grin is so big now that it almost hurts. Almost. “I knew you’d do it.”

And then they’re hugging again, her arms wrapped around his neck, his around her waist.

“You’re back,” he whispers finally, closing his eyes in thankfulness.

“Yeah.” She laughs, the sound wobbly but joyful as her grip tightens around him. “I’m back.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was an extremely satisfying thing to write. Caitlin and Cisco are my sleeper ship on The Flash; just when I decide they're platonic, they have a moment that makes me question it, but I don't want to fall in love with them if it's never going to happen. So thank you isloremipsumafterall for the prompt! I had a blast :)


End file.
